Care & Community - SOUTH AFRICA Daily Life

Daily Life of a Care & Community Project - Volunteer

Average Weekday

Morning
7am Wake up! Have breakfast - cereal or toast usually, the same sort of stuff you'd have at home. Get ready and ensure you had everything for the day ahead.
7.30 am Picked up and taken to project. Only a short car journey away!

At Crèche
The children would continue to arrive until about 8.30. They would all gather in the garage, which acted as the classroom, to sing songs together. These would be in a mix of sSwati and English. I picked them all up really quickly and it was great to sing along in both languages even if I didn't know what it meant; the songs would stay in my head all day!

9-10am I would help to teach the older children some basic English, from reciting the alphabet to learning the farm animals and the body. This could be using teaching aids such as posters or with the use of songs - anything creative goes!
10am I would help with feeding the children, a main meal for most of them. This generally meant checking that the older ones were ok and eating well and then physically feeding some of the younger children. After they finished they would usually have some time to play and I would join in.
11am-1pm I would help out with an activity. This varied on a daily basis and could be painting, jigsaws, writing (for the children nearing school age only), and drawing; it was very often related to what they had been taught in the morning. The younger children would usually have a nap at this point.
I would then be finished at crèche by 1 when most of the children headed home.

Lunch - I would sometimes eat at the crèche. This would usually be local food such as pap (maize meal) with boerwoers (similar to sausage) or it could be something as simple as a toasted sandwich, this would usually come with a rather sweet milky coffee. On free afternoons I would eat at home otherwise it would be a packed lunch, usually sandwiches and fruit either way.

Afternoon - While some afternoons I had free others I would join the other care volunteers to paint some of the crèches we were working at. Painting the crèche's could take a lot of time depending on the original state. We would usually have to clean up first and then patch up a bit in order to paint. We usually went with a basic background onto which we would use bright colours to add the alphabet and numbers along with other things that we would use to teach. The hard work was really worthwhile when you saw the children's and teachers' response and enjoyment. Free afternoons I would spend reading in the sun, at the library on the internet, shopping, swimming or on walks around the town and into the hills; often a nap was nice and a shower always felt necessary after having been in the crèche.

Evening - Living in a shared house with other volunteers was great as we would all take it in turns to cook and eat together. Nothing unusual really - Bolognese, burgers, curries, salads! Sometimes it would be a quiet night, on other occasions it could be drinks in one of the bars, especially at the weekends.

Average Weekend

Weekends were usually free time and there are many activities you can arrange from white water rafting to gold panning; weekends away in Blyde River Canyon to Swaziland; or a weekend in Barberton could be spent in the sun, swimming, walking or visiting the local tourist places and the museum.